Terror Thursday: Tales from the neighbourhood

Have you seen that Hong Kong horror movie called The Eye – the one that features a scene where the heroine walks into the lift and can sees the ghostly old man?

Well, congratulations Singapore! We now have our own version. There have been several stories running around one Singapore neighbourhood, and one block in particular. No we won’t tell you where, but you probably have an inkling of which neighbourhood we are talking about.

The story goes that an old uncle, we’ll call him “Uncle Boon” (who is in no way related to our mascot, Ah Boon), who lived alone in the corner unit on the 8th floor of his block. He was friendly with the other residents – always cheerful and greeting his neighbours warmly. Every morning and evening, he would have a routine, shuffling past the common corridor to take lift down to get his breakfast or dinner, and then coming back home to eat it. Later in the night, he would spend his time at the void decks, idling his time away.

However, for a period of time, no one saw Uncle Boon, and people began to wonder about him. Neighbours knocked on his doors and those who had his home number tried calling him, but there was never an answer. It was only after a nasty stench that started emanating from his flat that they realised something was amiss and rang up the police. Unfortunately for Uncle Boon, he had passed away in his sleep at home and because he didn’t have any close family, no one knew he had passed on.

Or did he really pass on?

Fast-forward a few months later, neighbours in his block began to notice that they had experienced a slew of strange incidents after Uncle Boon’s death. For example, lifts doors suddenly opened and jerked as if an unseen passenger just got in, and lights on the common corridor flickering on and off at the same exact timing each day. Most notably, there were a lot of unscheduled stops on the 8th floor, both in the morning and during the evenings. Checks had been conducted by electricians and technicians, but no faults could be found with the lifts nor the lights. Perhaps the lifts and lights in this notably old constituency are malfunctioning slowly and need some repairs soon? Maybe.

Or maybe not?

Residents from the neighbouring block have also reported seeing an unknown old man, who was later discovered to broadly matched Uncle Boon’s description, loitering around the void deck; the most notable time this happened was when a secondary school student got a scare last month on her way home after school when an old man followed her. Yet, when she made it to the car park where there were other people and she felt safe enough to turn around and confront him, he was no where to be seen. At least two other times too, bystanders from the neighbouring block say they saw a similar looking man following behind various residents, however the next second they looked, he was no where to be seen.

No one is sure why the spirit of Uncle Boon remains roused, although some guesses are that he just does not know that he is dead yet.

While nobody has any idea what could be going on, or if the old man is even Uncle Boon – it is unlikely that we know, but who’s to say? The fact remains that something strange is happening at that block and no one is sure why, or more worryingly what’s next?

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